A morning bank robbery and the ensuing search for suspects in the area shut down a stretch of Pratt Street on Friday. Police said that two men robbed at gunpoint the Hopkins Federal Savings Bank at the corner of East Pratt and South Eaton streets at about 8:30 a.m. No one was reported injured and the suspects fled on foot. Police received a tip that the suspects were inside a nearby apartment building, and officers shut down the area and called in the SWAT team. At 1 p.m., officers were still searching the rooftops of homes on the street with the help of a city fire truck, as the helicopter unit swirled overhead.

Baltimore City Police said they arrested two men Saturday who allegedly attempted to rob teenagers at gunpoint and stole their dirt bikes. Police spokesman Det. Ruganzu Howard said the spouse of a police officer watched as the men held up the teens near the 2700 block Waterview Avenue. The teens ran away and swam across a drainage lake in the Westpoint neighborhood of south Baltimore to escape. Howard said police used a helicopter to help catch the men. Brandon Hall, 27, and Thomas Smothers, 24, were both arrested and charged with armed robbery.

Anne Arundel County detectives are investigating three armed robberies that took place in quick succession Friday night, police said. Detectives think that the robberies are all connected, police spokesman Lt. Richard Duvall said. The first robbery happened at a BP gas station in the 8600 block of Veterans Highway around 7 p.m., police said. An employee told officers that a man came in armed with a gun, stole an undetermined amount of money and fled toward some woods, according to police.

The Westminster Police Department reported two robberies at McDaniel College on Tuesday night, including one involving a student making an on-campus pizza delivery. Police said that at approximately 9:30 p.m., a student walking across campus making a pizza delivery was approached by two males that accosted him with a handgun and demanded money. The student gave the suspects an undisclosed amount of money, and the suspects ran on foot off campus, police said. McDaniel spokeswoman Cheryl Knauer said students were instructed to remain in secure locations as law enforcement patrolled the campus throughout the night via updates from the college's alert system.

A 20-year-old robbery suspect was in the hospital after being shot in the shoulder early Sunday, Baltimore police said. An off-duty security guard told police he exchanged gunfire with a man who robbed him in the 3600 block of Dolfield Avenue before 3 a.m. The robber fled in a vehicle, police said. Shortly afterward they located a man they identified as the robbery suspect in the 1900 block of Dukeland Street. The off-duty security guard was unharmed.

A worker was stabbed in the shoulder when two men tried to rob a KFC on Pulaski Highway in Edgewood around closing time Saturday night, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said Sunday. Three workers were cleaning up about 10:45 p.m. when the two men, one of them masked, forced their way past an employee attempting to lock the restaurant door. One man wielded a large knife, the other carried a handgun. Workers told detectives the man with the knife stabbed a female worker in the left shoulder before fleeing on foot with his accomplice and no cash.

Police have charged an Essex man with pretending to be a police officer and stealing cash and a cellphone from a group of men in Washington Hill last month, court records show. Ioannis Skordalos, 35, of the 300 block of Riverside Drive faces charges of robbery, impersonating an officer and theft, and was being held without bail. There have been a series of police impersonation cases in recent months, including one in Greektown that occurred the day after Skordalos was charged, but he has not been linked to any other incidents.

Anne Arundel County Police arrested a man who they said walked out of a department store in Laurel with about $800 in merchandise on Saturday, then brandished a knife upon being asked to return to the store with the items. Police said that at approximately 6:40 p.m. they responded to a report of a robbery attempt at a Kohl's department store in Laurel. Police said a loss-prevention officer at the store reported having seen a man conceal numerous beauty products, including fragrances, on his person and leave the store.

Authorities say a disgruntled former Chipotle employee conspired with her boyfriend to hold up four area locations at gunpoint, according to a federal indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Marvel Alegria, 23, and boyfriend Lamont Bonds, 27, were first charged in November 2012 with robbing two Montgomery County Chipotles. In a news release at the time, county police said Alegria had been fired from the Mt. Airy Chipotle and had made threats to retaliate. The federal indictment, unsealed Friday, alleges that Alegria provided information to Bonds to "obtain the maximum amount of cash proceeds.

A second suspect in a 2005 Howard County homicide has been arrested and is awaiting extradition from Washington state. Alvaro Ramirez, 29, who was arrested Monday in Yakima County, faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, armed robbery and theft of Juan Miguel Gonzales, a 51-year-old West Friendship man who was found Oct. 19, 2005, fatally stabbed in his home in the 13000 block of Frederick Road. Joel Nunez Valles, 36, formerly of Columbia, was recently extradited from Mexico and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and armed robbery in Gonzales' death.

By Tim Swift and Colin Campbell and The Baltimore Sun | October 5, 2014

A Windsor Mill man and woman have been charged with robbing and killing a New York man and leaving his body on the side of a road in Carroll County Saturday night, State Police said. A witness told police he saw a man lying in the road at about 11 p.m. as two others stood nearby on Route 32 near Finksburg. When the witness approached the pair, they fled into a white vehicle and drove away, police said. The victim, 23-year-old Luis J. Pol, had several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

About 100 people and businesses were robbed in Baltimore for the week ending Sept. 27, a spike of more than 60 percent compared to the prior week yet down from the same time period last year. Eight of the robberies occurred downtown or in the Inner Harbor, while the entire Southwestern District reported just three robberies. The same statistics show robberies for the year are down 12 percent compared to last year. The Northern District saw the most of any of the Police Department's nine police districts, with 21. Eight of those robberies appear to have occurred in a single incident in the 5900 block of York Road on Sept.

Baltimore Police closed off part of an East Baltimore neighborhood for hours Wednesday as they attempted to coax a suspect wanted in several robberies out of a home, police said. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman, said officers came to the 1400 block of N. Potomac St. at about 3 p.m. looking for a suspect wanted in "several commercial armed robberies" who was believed to be in a home in the block. Silbert said officials made contact with the man and were confident that he was inside.

A Baltimore man pleaded guilty this week after investigators tied him to a series of armed robberies earlier this year in Northeast Baltimore. After one of the robberies, Thomas Mims, 53, was found in a car matching descriptions given by witnesses and led officers on a high speed chase, prosecutors said. Mims was ultimately taken into custody after he was trapped in a cul-de-sac by police amid the chase and was shot in the arm by an officer after speeding toward police who approached on foot.

Towson University police are investigating several off-campus, early morning robberies in the past two weeks. In three incidents since Sept. 7 police said victims were walking to or from apartment buildings when they were approached. In one on Sept. 11, in the 6300 block of York Road, north of Walker Avenue, the suspects were armed with handguns and knives. Two other cases, about a block away, in the 500 block of Castle Dr., on Sept. 7 and 16, police say suspects used physical force.

Anne Arundel County police have arrested two men in connection with an armed robbery committed by people who claimed to be county police officers. Police said on Aug. 23 at about 10:30 p.m., four people were walking on a path in the area of Kent Road in the Glen Burnie area when they were stopped by two males who claimed to be Anne Arundel County officers. Neither of the suspects displayed items that would portray them as officers, but the suspects did show handguns and demanded property from the victims, according to police.

Anne Arundel County police arrested four teenagers Thursday and charged them in connection with the armed robbery of a man Wednesday night in the Pumphrey area. According to police, the victim told them he was near Gibbons and Bishop avenues about 10:30 p.m. when three men and a woman - two of them carrying handguns - approached him and took his money. Police arrested four people, all of the 200 block of Berlin Ave. in Brooklyn Park, and charged them with armed robbery and related counts.

Annapolis police have arrested two teenagers and charged them as adults in the armed robbery last week of a man who was walking his dogs. Joshua Sack, 16, of the 1000 block of Spa Road in Annapolis was charged with armed robbery, first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and theft after investigators searched his home Saturday, seizing a handgun and finding property that belonged to the victim, police said. On Monday, police arrested Erik A. Kleis,17, of no fixed address and charged him with armed robbery, first- and second-degree assault, use of a handgun in connection with a violent crime and theft, police said.